Posted on 06/16/2008 10:42:45 AM PDT by Bobkk47
LONDON (Reuters) - Gay men and straight women share some characteristics in the area of the brain responsible for emotion, mood and anxiety, researchers said on Monday in a study highlighting the potential biological underpinning of sexuality. ADVERTISEMENT
Brain scans also showed the same symmetry among lesbians and straight men, the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The observations cannot be easily attributed to perception or behavior," the researchers from Sweden's Karolinska Institute wrote. "Whether they may relate to processes laid down during the fetal or postnatal development is an open question."
A number of studies have looked at the roles genetic, biological and environmental factors play in sexual orientation but little evidence exists that any plays an all-important role. Many scientists believe both nature and nurture play a part.
Brain scans of 90 volunteers showed that the brains of heterosexual men and homosexual women were slightly asymmetric with the right hemisphere slightly larger than the left, Ivanka Savic and Pers Lindstrom wrote. The brains of gay men and heterosexual women were not.
Then they measured blood flow to the amygdala -- the area key for the "fight-or-flight" response -- and found it was wired in a similar fashion in gay men and heterosexual women as well as lesbians and heterosexual men.
The researchers added that the study cannot say whether the differences in brain shape are inherited or due to exposure to hormones such as testosterone in the womb and if they are responsible for sexual orientation.
But this is something they plan to look at in a further study of newborn babies to see if it can help predict future sexual orientation.
"These observations motivate more extensive investigations of larger study groups and prompt for a better understanding of the neurobiology of homosexuality," they wrote.
They also share a passion for make-up, shoes and men.
HOw Thpecial!!
what about bis, metros, trannys, etc?
Arnold was correct,these are Girlie Men!
Does that mean that if I convert a lesbian to hetro, then I'd get a woman who isn't crazy?
LOL...
I’ve always found Megan Mullally to be hot for some reason...
She ain’t bad.
That explains “Sex and the City.”
And you’re only 31 too. She’s almost old enough to be our mom.
And interior decorating with absolutely fabou-loso colors!
I thought it was the “Shopping” gene they shared.
Who didn’t see that one coming, GIRLFRIEND!
It makes sense - if you don’t believe in God.
There are a whole lot of guys who will dip their wick in just about anything (think prisons). I don’t think they have the same kind of brain pattern as women.
Yeah, I can believe that.......
So, why is there no parallel attempt to find a physiological reason for all the other sexual disorders? They must have been born that way also?
Aha! So straight women should have gay men friends to discuss their emotions with and not bother trying to make their husbands “understand” them. Makes perfect sense. Seriously.
This was the impetus for Sex and the City. All they did was make the central cast women to market it.
That explains faghags, don’t it?!
Another attempt to “medicalize” deviance so that they can receive legitimacy by forcing their life style upon us by claiming discrimination for a biological condition by exploiting disability laws.
again more anecdotal nonsense.
They might as well have brain scans of similar behaviors to contrast.
Men who act like women have brain scans similar to women who act like women.
Men and women who body build probably have the same brain scans too.
I searched by title before I posted... Sorry for my duplicate, above.
They studied, gay men, gay women, straight men and straight women. I they had equal numbers of each class of subjects, you would have 22.5 people in each group. (Unless they had midgets too, we should probably round down).
This is a ridiculously small sampling is meaningless except that it forwards the gay and the scientific grant-getting agends.
Is that the cause — or the effect — of homosexual behavior?
That’s EXACTLY what I was going to post. Good job!
notice this is part of the move to abandon the gene myth propaganda. The homosexual activists know that they can’t win the behavior argument so they have been trying to keep the uncertainty as open as possible.
Not that it is pretty clear there is no homsexual gene, they are not pushing the “in the womb” BS to keep the “issue” alive.
This is dangerous ground for the homosexuals because what will they do if people demand cures to treat the imbalance? Then again the feminists will demand treatment to CREATE imbalance in boys. (ie see ritalin and ADHD)
All the gays I know say they were born this way. A good friend who has a gay son said she noticed early on that he wasn’t like most boys - wanted to play with dolls and the girls, etc.
And yes, there are plenty of gay perverts but there are also many decent ones who want to live their lives quietly in their own way.
Yep, too bad her voice got out of the hearing range of humans.
Wikipedia lists her in the ‘Bisexual Actors’ catagory...
Oh well, she’s still much more attractive than any of the ‘ladies’ on Sex and the City.
I have often wondered if something in puberty does not develop fully to have the young progress to the next step of development - the sudden change when boys start noticing girls instead of being content with their buddies and all the adventures of pre-adolescence.
This is not saying the Bible is in error in the least - just that maybe there are more than one type of gays - those seeking sexual diversion and those young that for whatever reason find they are not quite the same as their friends. All is fine until their friends start developing interest in girls and they find that that step does not happen to them.
We all know that teens’ top priority is the opinion of their peers - so, IMHO, no teen would willingly decide to develop traits leading to the utter condemnation of them and the lost of those friends.
Also, ever try and talk a hetrosexual teen into staying away from girls? Staying out of trouble? How come that is not a problem with the other male teenagers that generally develop into gays?
Just some things I have wondered about.
An awful, awful predictament for those young teenagers coming to realize their interests are not the same as the interest of their buddies. Then they gradually drift into the company of other non-women obsessed males and tragedy happens.
But colleges and the media insist it is ALL genetics, hardwired from birth.
Where did that famous gay icon Jeffrey Dahmer fit in all this?
If you remember the brain shape study on this subject, it was 11 brains (or 14 but an absurdly low number)
This is not about science, this is about sexual politics using science as concealment for abnormality.
It is really fascinating this stuff is being funded.
But colleges and the media insist it is ALL genetics, hardwired from birth.””
So, can we rest assured that women are obsessed with young boys, the male anus, and fecal material from filthy public restrooms?
***Gay men and straight women share some characteristics in the area of the brain responsible for emotion, mood and anxiety, ***
In the electrical industry we call that a “short circuit!”
(Duck and cover);-D
So, this really should go back into the DSM as a psychiatric disorder. After all, if a man’s brain is working the same as a woman’s brain, then something’s just not right and it should be treated, right?
Hmmm, I do like some of the same things....oh, never mind.
Exactly...Using the brain has to stimulate changes.
But bob, who else would she be able to sit with who wouldn’t be all about wallowing in that cleavage?
I’m a behaviorist. It’s a learned behavior. New learned traits create new neural pathways in the brain. If the opposite were true, wouldn’t all women be attracted to butch bulls, etc?
And it’s fine if it’s learned behavior, but let’s call it what it is...a choice.
I guess this explains why the left hemisphere of my brain is so much larger than my right hemisphere.....
90 random scans = 4 homosexuals ?
You’d probably get the woman you deserve.
It is an election year with the Dims in the lead. It would be a great time to get some earmark funding. Proving gays can’t help it is almost as big a money getter as globull warming
"Born" that way? Genetic traits possibly that may make them more susceptible to that behavior, just as an extra Y chromosome can be related to tendency to aggressive behavior, but does not mandate it.
And how could anyone possibly know how they were born? Paying attention to sex does not happen for years. Years that environmental impact has had time to shape behavior. No surprise your friends say that, liberal thinking has encouraged and promoted that for years now.
I started having crushes on boys at an early age - of course I had no idea what sex was at the time but still.....I had the crushes. This was despite having a bad father. I figure I was born that way.
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